As guitarist for The Slits, the pioneering all-girl punk band that emerged from London’s late ’70s music scene, Viv Albertine helped redefine women’s place in rock, challenging the conventions of a male-dominated industry. With their experimental sound, DIY spirit, and uncompromising approach to female identity, the band’s influence extended from the first wave of British punk to the feminist and riot grrrl movements of the ’90s and beyond.
Born in Sydney in 1954 and raised in London, Albertine came of age amid the social upheaval of the ’70s, finding her place in the anarchic, anything-goes world of punk. When The Slits disbanded in 1982, she pursued filmmaking and television work — including freelance directing stints with the BBC and the British Film Institute — before returning to music with her solo album The Vermilion Border in 2012.
Also an acclaimed memoirist, Albertine’s 2014 Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys., offers a candid account of early punk, sex, relationships and the realities of being a woman in the music industry. Her follow-up, To Throw Away Unopened, is an equally uncompromising exploration of family history, anger, and aging, centered on her complicated relationship with her mother.
Like many celebrated songwriters, Albertine’s creative outputs are influenced by a lifelong love for literature. Sharing some of her all-time favorites in a 2014 interview with Idler, she listed Alain-Fournier’s “ultimate teenage angst book” alongside Anaïs Nin’s sexually frank diaries and Alain de Botton’s practical guide to finding life lessons in Proust.
Read on for Viv Albertine’s recommendations, and complement with the bookshelves of fellow punk icons Carrie Brownstein, Chrissie Hynde, Henry Rollins, Kim Gordon, Kurt Cobain, Patti Smith and Vivienne Westwood.
Viv Albertine’s Reading List
Le Grand Meaulnes by Henri Alain-Fournier
“This is the ultimate teenage angst book. We passed it around at school like we were handing round a little wrap of heroin.” -VA
Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain
“Such a drab yet perfect title. Street poetry and an archetypical portrait of the mother-daughter relationship… if you’re not careful.” -VA
The Diary of Anaïs Nin by Anaïs Nin (also rec’d by Erica Jong & Rose Byrne)
“Very sexually frank and personally revealing. A huge inspiration for me.” -VA
How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton
“I love Proust and this is a beautifully written and sensitive self help book using Proust’s writings as life guides. What could be better? Proust really knew about people.” -VA
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (also rec’d by Frank Ocean & Kurt Cobain)
“Written in 1967 when Susan Hinton was 15 years old. I love this book, very inventive and edgy. I especially love the names of the characters e.g. Ponyboy Curtis, Sodapop Curtis, Dallas Winston, Two Bit Matthews. Later made into great little gang movie by Francis Ford Coppola in 1983.” -VA
(via Idler)
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